Future Technology Trends

Researchers are searching for novel processor architectures. Trying to supplant current CMOS for a variety of applications seems like challenging feat. A recent undertaking will combine a few fresh concepts to gain this capability. A spintronic and straintronic microchip is one potential avenue to make this outcome a reality. A US government agency has given a 1.5 million dollar grant to the Virginia Commonwealth University under the banner of the “nanoelectronics for 2020 and beyond” competition. One of the goals of this venture is to develop neuromorphic CPUs that have unique properties. By processing information in a manner similar to a real brain, the electronics would be more efficient than any conceivable hardware. They hope to demonstrate improved image processing capabilities with these synthetic neural networks. The nodes communicate by interactions between spin wave circuits and the multiferroic magnetic cells. Since it operates like a biological mind, it won’t need software to carry out tasks.  Read More »

Graphene arrays may help to create extremely high-density electronic computer chips. Many thinkers forecast that these shapes will replace standard technology within the next decade or so. This may not occur until silicon reaches a dead end. The sheets of carbon atoms are finding numerous other uses as times goes by. Researchers from Rice University and Hong Kong Polytechnic U have shown how these graphene nanoribbons can stand on a substrate with only a small support system. This work is located in the journal of the American Chemical Society. Nickel and diamond bind to the ends of the graphene and let it to be upright. Diamond is also composed of intricately bonded carbon and is a very durable material. It is one of the hardest compounds available. The contact between the two mediums is in a relatively tiny area, so the graphene walls maintain their unique properties. The combinations have electric and magnetic characteristics that are similar to freestanding ones. They claim that there is a theoretical limit of putting 100 trillion field-effect transistors into a single square centimeter sized microchip.   Read More »

Researchers from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne are investigating stencil lithography as a possible way to build nanostructures. This might synthesize microchips in a rapid and inexpensive fashion. There are several advantages with this type of technology and it could lead to improved computers. It may be capable of making circuits that have large-scale integrations of many transistors. For the technique, they put a silicon wafer in an evaporator. On top of this is a stencil that has apertures. These openings are 100 to 200 nanometers in size. As a metal evaporates near it, the stencil acts like a mask. The molecules move through the openings and then deposit on the substrate in a confined manner. Its precise nature allows it to create well-aligned components. The idea behind this is not new. However, it has previously been a challenge to do this on the nanometer level. It is similar to how spray paint can go through a designed shape. Read More »

A recent type of computer memory could potentially be faster than existing commercial technologies and it may use less electricity when compared to flash devices. Purdue University researchers have combined a ferroelectric polymer with silicon nanowires. Several organizations have focused on nanowires in order to maintain the pace of Moore’s Law. PVDF-TrFE is the chained molecule and this compound can change its polarity when they apply an electric field. The ability to alter its orientation lets it encode binary. The property enables it to act as a switch that can move between a one and a zero. They call this contraption a ferroelectric transistor random access memory or FeTRAM for short. This work is located in the August issue of the journal “Nano Letters”, which is published by the American Chemical Society. They have already constructed a prototype circuit with the part. These fundamental pieces can help to build fresh processor architecture designs. Read More »

A recent conference covered progress towards greener information technology.  The CHIST-ERA is a European coordinated research program for long-term challenges.  Many of the speakers are part of the European zero power consortium.  A main goal of this venture is to take advantage of gains in nanomaterials.  Several methods can allow electronics to harvest ambient energy from the environment.  Nanotechnology will help researchers design self-sustaining devices that can run without the need for batteries.  One such avenue to accomplish this is with thermoelectric designs.   Read More »

A symposium recently took place in Japan that discussed progress towards information systems that only need ultra-low power to function.  Some of these gains may require thinking outside the box and utilizing non-standard technologies.  Superconducting processors are a potential option for lower power computation.  One researcher detailed his work on a single flux quantum circuit (SFQ) that uses a 2 micrometer (or 2000 nanometer) fabrication process.  The most current Intel chips by comparison utilize a 22-nanometer node.  An SFQ CPU uses a superconducting loop coupled with Josephson junctions to perform calculations.  A SFQ voltage pulse lasts several picoseconds and is the carrier of information.  The switching needs much less energy than conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductors.  The scientists have designed circuit components of an FPA and an FPM that can run at 80 GHz.  They have created a device that has 14,040 Josephson junctions that they claim is one of the highest numbers for a large-scale integrated single flux quantum chip of its type.  The goal of the work is construct a 10 teraflop/s desktop machine that consumes one-hundredth the electric power compared to current tech.  It is unclear how marketable these systems would be. Read More »

Attaining exascale performance levels is the dream of many nations. It seems easy for people to discount Europe as a player in extreme supercomputing. Over the past several decades, Japan and the United States have battled it out for the top supercomputer status. Recently China has also managed to take the crown for a brief period of several months. Europe has not been able to surpass any of these countries for a long time. Perhaps in the future this will change. The European Union allows a number of different countries to collaborate with one another. The EU has a population that is greater than that of the US and a very high gross domestic product per capita. In 2010, their total GDP was $ 15.17 trillion dollars compared to 14.65 trillion for the US (according to the IMF). Since the Eastern European economies have increasingly favored more capitalistic policies, the aggregate GDP can still go even higher (assuming they can overcome present challenges). France currently has the ninth most powerful (debuting at 6th place) mainframe in the world that has a sustained performance of one petaflop/s and a peak of 1.25 petaflops. Out of the top 500 in June 2011, Germany has 30 supercomputers with a sum speed of 3.242 petaflops. This is enough to put it in fourth place in terms of aggregate performance, behind the US, Japan and China. After Germany comes France with 25 machines and the United Kingdom with 27. Those three countries alone mean the European Union has at least 82 machines. They are still contenders for the race towards one quadrillion operations per second. Read More »

Graphene has long been touted as a viable successor to silicon transistors.  Some of these past claims have been misleading and researchers have said that it won’t be able to have these capabilities.  However, there is still continuing work to surmount the barriers that have prevented it from becoming a reality.  Graphene is one inch thick and looks like a hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms.  It is an excellent conductor of electricity and since carbon is a common element it makes it attractive option for synthesizing cheaper CPU’s.  Numerous other uses have been found for this tech including nanoantennas and actuators.  A main issue with this nanotechnology is that it doesn’t have a band gap.  In semiconductors, electrons can be at 2 different energy levels.  These are known as conduction and valence bands.  The energy space that exists between the regions is named the band gap.  This property is important to enable a transistor to switch on and off.  Without it, graphene wouldn’t be able to perform digital computations using ones and zeroes.  Researchers at Purdue University have created a novel inverter, which is a necessary component of a digital transistor.  This has been done before, but many of the previous types have operated only at very low temperatures near 77 degrees kelvin.  This new one can successfully switch at room temp and thus boosts the probability that it will find its way into a wider array of niche markets or even consumer products.  Aligning the parts into logic gates could allow mathematical calculations to be performed.  The scientist’s discoveries were detailed in a paper named “Complementary-Type Graphene Inverters Operating at Room-Temperature,” that was presented in June during the 2011 Device Research Conference.   Read More »

The first 20 petaflop/s supercomputers should be in service by 2012 and after that comes a machine in the 100 petaflop/s range (2015).  Scientists are moderately optimistic that exaflop/s (1000 petaflop/s) mainframes can be constructed by 2018-2020.  However, are some of these expectations just plain irrational?  A workshop discussed the hardware and software upgrades that will be needed to best exploit this kind of computational muscle.   Read More »